My deck… was stolen… and replaced by something else – a disk with the words “Don’t play me” written on it. I should obviously play it. After all, something is up with this.
I turned on my TV, and in a few moments it started playing a video. Loud heavy metal music started playing, and the narrator started speaking:
“CHILDREN’S CARD GAMES! METALLICA! MAFIA! FREE PERFECT GUARDS! WHAT ELSE COULD YOU WANT!?”
Hmm, potatoes. I thought
“THEN JOIN THE YEARLY MEGACOLONY… ILLEGAL… TOURNMENT!!!” He announced, as the words popped up on the screen. “JUST FOR SIGNING UP, YOU’LL GET A FREE PERFECT GUARD!”
“Yay!” A kid was shown screaming.
“BECAUSE YOU’LL NEED IT!”
“WHAT THE-“ The same kid appeared, being attacked by Death Army Cosmo Lord, as a gigantic explosion took place – “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”
“TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM BRANDY!”
“Huh?” The same kid appeared, now looking at Brandy “Oh, come on!” And then the toddler exploded – “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”
“THAT’S RIGHT, TWO WEEKS FROM NOW, THE TOURNMENT WILL TAKE PLACE ALL OVER THE CITY! AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE POLICE!”
A policeman was shown eating donuts.
“What? I’m a policeman. What else did you expect me to do? Refuse donuts?”
And then the policeman exploded – “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM”.
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? SIGN UP ASAP!!!”
The screen went blue and the narrator started saying, in a lower tone, the words that were written in white color on the screen:
“Megacolony is not responsible for any mental damage, physical damage, wounds, burns, poisoning, comas, crippling, deaths, Reverse, or even worse, being turned into a bishi by Brandy, who indeed forced us to put him into the advertisement.”
And a part that wasn’t written:
“Also, Abyss, you’re not special. This advertisement is gonna air on the TV. What are you gonna do about it? Between, check out the tooth fairy’s gift.”
The tooth fairy… that means…
I checked under my pillow. There, I found a picture of Brandy, an entry to the tournament and…
…
Emerald Shield, Paschal! I’m so glad to see that!
“Abyss… I know what you’re thinking… and yes, it’s true. The Megacolony stole the rest of the cards. They left me behind just because of the entry, but we’ll have to rescue the rest of the army.” Paschal announced, sad.
“I understand… but I can’t keep hurting people with this Narukami deck.”
“You could go and use your money to buy another deck. They didn’t steal it.”
“Good… but still, I won’t be able to master a deck in two weeks to the level that I’ll get to win a tournament using it.”
“So… what are you going to do about it?”
“I will… I will go to the darkness to master my own darkness.”
“Wait… what do you mean?”
“It’s time to pack the essential and close the S.S. Navalgazer, we’ll be gone for two weeks.”
And so I did… memories overflowing… sad memories from all of these things… clotches, cards, money, food. I put everything inside a handbag. Then I took my sad theater mask… looked at it, and put it inside the bag as well.
Leaving the ship, I closed everything properly. Sadly, now I had to hope the Megacolony wouldn’t invade it again. I wouldn’t be able to do much about it.
Despite being another beautiful morning, I turned back and took the road to my destination. I passed the city, and remembered my nightmare. It wasn’t any pleasant, so I just started running faster.
Past the city, I was close to my destination when I saw somebody in my way.
“I knew you would eventually come here…” He turned, and I could see his face.
“You’re… you’re that guy that was watching me fight to escape my death while just taking notes in the Shadow Paladin dome!” I said, as I recognized him.
“Yeah, right… just call me by my name: Sol Kage.”
“Sol Kage… the sun’s shadow?” I asked, just to make sure.
“Yes, and I knew you were going to come here when the Megacolony took your deck.”
“So you knew it, and did nothing about it!?” I asked, indignant.
“Around here, I’m called the ‘Omniscience’. I know most of that’s going on, and the illegal activity is no exception. Of course, I won’t tell it to the police. I’m the sun’s shadow, and while the sun is a natural source of light, it is also enveloped by the darkness of space. As for you, I must say I’m curious to see how far your willpower will go to recover your deck… your… comrades? I could have informed your family about way more than what I said by now, too, but I’m curious.” He looked extremely calm saying that.
“You… are working for my family?” I asked.
“Of course, if they want information about you, they’ll go straight to the omniscience. I’m getting paid for that. And I think you should have this back. You let it on the floor while leaving, it seems.” He threw a card at me. I grabbed it.
“This is…”
“That’s right. They said this was the card you used in your last cardfight before you left.”
And yet another flashback stroke back…
…
“Mizuha attacks your vanguard! Skill activate! I Soul Blast 3, and it gets 5000 power and a critical!” She said.
“Perfect Guard!” I replied.
“Sahohime attacks!”
“Guard!”
“Izunahime attacks!”
“Guard!”
“Turn end…”
“Stand and draw… Oh, it’s here… and I’m fairly certain you can’t guard it… stand up, my avatar of madness, I ride ARMOR BREAK DRAGON!” I spoke, more sinister than ever before.
“Vítor… that is…”
“Limit Break! I Counter Blast 3 cards, discard 3 from my hand, and retire all units in the front row! For that, I gain 10000 powers and two criticals! It’s over! Armor Break Dragon, attack her again!”
“No… guard…”
“Right, I hurt your pride, didn’t I? This is not going to hurt more than that day! Twin Drive, first check. Critical trigger! All to Armor Break Dragon! Second check! Another critical! All to my vanguard!”
“Aaah!” She screamed as the damage flew to her damage zone, giving her the loss.
“Good… now look by the bright side, you won’t need to see me again for a long time. Goodbye…”
And then I left the city for good…
…
“Also take this. You’ll be able to use it once you master your powers. But keep in mind you should try Armor Break Dragon first.” He threw another card at me. “Well, I guess this is all for now. I have to go. Bye.” And he left. I took a quick look at the card, and proceeded to my destination.
I reached a forest, and it started getting darker all of sudden. Suddenly, a couple chains pierced the floor, almost hitting my feet.
“Well, well, what do we have here… the Nubatama and Murakumo are being visited? Who are you?” A shady figure said.
“I’m Abyss665. I moved to this city a while ago, and I’m here to learn. I need to control my darkness, but I lack the power to do so.” I replied, calm.
“No… you’re lying… even about your identity… do you know me, your ‘majesty’?”
“Judging by your looks, you’re the human chosen by Kabukicongo, the young yet powerful ninja dragon.”
“Oh, so you do know… you may be worthy of respect after all… say, what do you want here?” He asked, curious.
“I’m here to talk to Kujikiricongo.”
“Oh, really?” He pushed his chains back. “If it depends on him, you won’t stay here for long. But we can give it a try. Come over here.”
He lead me to another path, hidden deep inside the forest. I feel like we’re far from the Neo Nectar, despite being in the nature surrounding the city.
We soon reached a village. Everything looked calm, simple but comfortable.
“To live in the darkness, to die in the darkness… you know all that ninja philosophy stuff.” Kabukicongo’s partner said, as if it was the lamest thing in the world.
No matter how much we’d walk, nobody would mind us. They’d look at us for half a second at best, and go back to their routine, revealing great discipline.
We reached a building slightly bigger than the others, and Kabukicongo took off his sandals.
“Leave your footwear here, I’ll announce your arrival to the old man.” He said, and so I did.
While he was inside the building, I took my time to look around. Nobody seemed to mind living in the darkness, or having chaos inside themselves. Everyone was in synchrony with the nature, like they are more human than the city will ever be. After all, humans too are, or at least were, part of the nature. Yes, I believe this is what I need.
Kabukicongo returned, and then said.
“You’re good. Come inside.”
As expected, the furniture and decoration was Japanese styled. At the end of what seemed to be the darkest room in the building, a person was sitting.
“Sir, this is the visitor, Abyss665.” Kabukicongo announced.
And then Kujikiricongo and I started talking.
“You… are indeed the one who he told me you are. So, what brings you here?”
“I need to control the darkness inside me, so I won’t hurt the innocent ones anymore.” I replied.
“I see… but in order to work with that, you’ll need to enlighten me first. Some things can’t be left in the darkness. Tell me how you got this far.”
“I didn’t get any far, but I’ll tell you… as you know, five years ago, the Reverse War happened, and the whole Cray had to unite forces to combat the threat of the invaders, Link Joker. With the help of humans, Cray won, but the planet was still severely damaged, to a point not even their gods could fix entirely. Since then, units needed time to re-build their world, and were forced to begin living with humans permanently. Then, it was decided that the leaders of Cray also needed to have human representatives. In a hurry to pick these, the units deemed most of the humans unworthy of being the Dragon Emperor, and so they picked one who, by the time, was a new and ‘promising’ player. That one is said to be me, and that would explain why I could start talking to units all of sudden, and transport my soul to Cray freely. However, the Emperor is supposed to be a benevolent being that can deliver justice with his cardfighting. That seems to be the problem. Since that day, my madness seems to take over me at some point whenever I cardfight using a clan of the Dragon Empire.”
“That’s… interesting…” Kujikiricongo seemed to start thinking about the possibilities. “Do you know what may have caused that?”
“I have one theory… my grandpa, despite being a proud warrior kind, has Dragon Mage blood running through his veins. I was always the black sheep of the family, and my family knows he expected to be chosen as the emperor himself. When I was chosen, he may have cursed me.”
“I see… but that’s only half of the story.”
“What do you mean? Is there something you know and I don’t?” I asked, confused.
“I’m fairly certain I’m aware of a lot of things that you don’t know, but at the moment, I am indeed talking about what you do know. Your grandfather couldn’t have cursed you to create a being of darkness inside of you. Rather, that one already existed inside of you. Tell me, how did you develop your dark side that far?”
“As I said, I was always the black sheep of the family. They expect the Dragon Emperor to be dedicated to his own family, to honor his ascendants and the blood running through his veins, but of course, that’s something I could never do. On top of that, I never even wanted to have such responsibility. In fact, that ruined everything I ever wanted. And so, also because of that, the darkness started growing stronger and stronger.”
“I see… you don’t want to be the Dragon Emperor, but decided to tame the darkness inside of you because…?”
“Because recently I found out the clan for me is Aqua Force, a clan to which I had access recently. However, all but one of my cards was stolen, and I will be forced to use my Narukami to recover it in a tournament two weeks from now.”
“And why do you expect me to help you?”
“You’re the human avatar of Kujikiricongo. You know how it is to have to refuse the power conceded to you, and I’m aware of it. You know how it is when the darkness destroys the light, rather than when the light destroys the darkness.”
“Very well… but I will first need to judge your power.”
“And I expect you’re going to do that with a cardfight?” I asked.
“If you’re really going to reveal your darkness, then yes. After all, darkness can’t hurt darkness, only intensify it.” He replied.
“If you’re sure about it, then let’s begin.”
He rose up from the floor, and spoke in a darker tone:
“Envelop darkness with more darkness, and make it so only the truth can be seen… Stealth Arts, Midnight Eclipse!”
The whole room was enveloped by darkness, and so we created our mats.
“Stand up…”
“My” I continued.
“Vanguard!”